Julia Berry said.......>> I will be a first year art teacher in the fall. I have found>out that I will be teaching an Advertising class with approx. 9>students. This causes a problem, I do not have a background in>advertising. If anyone has ideas or suggestions for curriculum>development, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.
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I was an art director in an advertising agency for three years so I can
help. I think actual on-hands training is in order here.

1) For instance, one project might be a cooperative learning project where
each member at a table is given a job description: Art director, Creative
Director, Copywriter, Account Executive, etc. The teacher will be the
client and will tell each "agency" what product they want sold and the
money they wish to spend.

To add fun to the groups, they might even come up with names for their
agencies. The account executive will keep track of the budget and
communicate between the client and the creatives in the agency. They will
also need a price list of things such as the cost to produce a newsletter,
a billboard, brochure, magazine ad, etc. The creative director is the coach
and motivator and helps lead the team meeting to come up with abstract
ideas. The art director or artist will come up with roughs, the copywriter
will come up with the copy.. They all talk about their ideas and then
finalize all of them with more detailed, finished work. If you have
computers available, let them put the finished product on a computer, if
not, do it the way they did a few years ago- with colored markers.

If a group finishes early, give them a TV commercial to do with a story
board with at least 6 screens to do. They can roll play the commercial to
the class if there is time.

2) Related projects for advertising would be type. Lessons on fonts,
kerning, leading, style, etc. would be in order. Also composition of ads-
the product being centrally located and large, the main headline, etc.
Because some agencies still use colored markers for layouts- particularly
in the television medium, lessons on the use of markers would also be
helpful.

*I recommend that you arrange a visit in an advertising agency. Tell them
you're a teacher looking for ideas and want to tour the building. Most will
be cooperative. Also, you might want to show portions of the movie,
"Nothing in Common" with Jackie Gleason and Tom Hanks which came out around
1986. Although this movie is slightly outdated due to technical changes, it
is very accurate as to the inner workings of a large ad agency.